Before whisky and vodka conquered the world, China was already distilling. Here's everything a curious drinker needs to know about the world's best-selling spirit.
The world's best-selling spirit
Baijiu (pronounced bye-j'yo, meaning 'white liquor') outsells whisky, vodka and gin combined. Yet outside China, almost nobody has tried it. That gap — between the world's most consumed spirit and the world's least understood one — is exactly why we started Baijiu House.
Grain, earth and time
Baijiu is distilled from grain — most often sorghum, sometimes blended with wheat, rice, corn or millet. What sets it apart is how that grain is treated. Instead of being dissolved in water and fermented as a liquid, baijiu's grains are fermented in a solid state: steamed, inoculated with qu (a living culture of mold, yeast and bacteria), and fermented in stacked layers before distillation.
A spectrum of aromas
Baijiu is not one taste but several. The four classic families — sauce aroma (jiangxiang), strong aroma (nongxiang), light aroma (qingxiang) and rice aroma (mixiang) — span everything from savory, soy-like depth to bright, floral fruitiness. Kouzijiao's blended aroma (jianxiang) weaves two of these families into one bottle.
Where to start
Begin with a strong-aroma baijiu or a blended aroma like Kouzijiao — they read as 'fruity and rich' to Western palates. Sip it from a tiny glass, at room temperature or slightly chilled, and give your palate a few minutes. The first sip is a conversation; the second is a friendship.